Imagine a joining of two great games, Eidos’ Commando’s – Behind Enemy
Lines and Redstorm Entertainment’s Rainbow Six series and you’ll have a picture of Illusion Softworks’ latest title, Hidden and Dangerous. It’s a nice change from the past tactical shooter games in that it’s set
not in modern day hot zones, but in historic WWII. You control a team of
SAS troopers in WWII Europe, wreaking havoc and mayhem behind German lines.
A couple of weeks ago I was in the mall for the first time since returning
from my honeymoon. Now that ‘Operation Tie the Knot’ was successfully completed
I was on a one man recon mission to acquire a new game.
I had Hidden and
Dangerous and Jagged Alliance 2 in my hands and was trying to decide
which
one to go with when I remembered all the hype about H&D
amongst our readers. So I grabbed it. I love first person shooters and
the WWII setting was too much to pass up. Besides it’s been awhile
since I’ve written a
review. So off I went with the new game in hand, ready to put it
through
its paces.
Digging In
I had taken a very brief look at the demo when it first became available,
so I was a little familiar with the games premise and I really was interested
in seeing it in action in the final product. H&D to me looked like
what Spec Ops 2 should be; first and third person perspectives, tactical
map, 4 team members you can control and a series of challenging tactical
missions. I also liked the fact that for once we weren’t dealing with American
Special Forces.
Don’t get me wrong, I did
my four in the Corps and love the good ol’ US of A. But, just about every
game out there is either dealing with US special forces or some fantastical
units of mercenaries. For a change we can be one of the elite of
another country’s forces, the British SAS. I’m sure our readers in the
UK are plenty pleased with that.
Perusing the 58 page manual while the game installed I found a nice
smattering
of background info on the SAS as well as game play instructions. The
other nice thing about the manual is the final 22 pages, titled
‘The Combat Manual.’ This section describes in good detail basic and
advanced infantry tactical doctrine. Through a series of diagrams,
screen shots and text
you are walked through the things that will help keep you alive in the
game.
Once the game was done installing I was off and playing. Just as in
Rainbow
Six you’ll choose your operatives from a pool of around 40 SAS
troopers,
using up to 8 in a given mission. Each has his own bio, revealing
strengths and weaknesses and general abilities. Choosing your team can
take time or you could opt to let the computer pick for you. The
computer does a good job of giving you
the right balance of troops to complete each mission, so to speed
things
along you can allow the computer to pick your team and even outfit them
with weapons.
The game models 20 different infantry weapons ranging from mines to pistols,
machine guns, sniper rifles and grenades. Of course you have the standard
knife for the up close ‘wet work’ and an assortment of other interesting
items to round out your kit.
Items such as binoculars and coding equipment are also included
(for coding and decoding enemy code papers) and a camera for taking
those momento snapshots of the scenic German countryside. After picking
your
team and outfitting them its off to the battlefields of WWII Europe to
save the free world.
He Who Dares, Wins!
After
being first captivated by the secretive British SAS in 1980’s storming
of the Iranian Embassy at Princes Gate which was the basis for the movie
‘The Final Option’, I was truly excited at the chance to be a ‘virtual’
SAS trooper. And here I could do it all without the prospect of
dealing with the Brecon Beacons or the worry of being dropped, or as the
Brits so eloquently put it, getting ‘binned’ from their notoriously rigorous
training program.
Basing the missions around similar ones carried out by SAS troops in WWII,
Illusion Softworks has put together a series of 23 missions ranging from
tough to near impossible; but all missions can be completed.
The first mission has you crossing a heavily patrolled railway bridge to link up with
resistance fighters. You’re crossing this bridge at night during the rain
so you’ll have some advantage on your side. Just watch out for the trains,
because this is an active railway bridge!
The first thing I noticed were the excellent graphics. The countryside,
bridge and trains were nicely done. But the true standouts were the friendly
and enemy soldiers and their movement animations. My soldiers moved with
me in true lifelike fashion, fanning out to cover sectors of fire when
I paused and mirroring my posture as they followed behind me. Enemy soldiers
as well were impressive to watch and wounds and death animations were done
believably well. The animations breathe life into the characters, making
you feel like you truly are there.
Environmentals
Environmental effects like rain and night lighting are done very well also.
Nighttime ops are D-A-R-K, just like it was for the soldiers in WWII. They
weren’t spoiled by the use of technology as we are today through the use
of nigh vision goggles.
Playing
night missions in this game will truly give you a sense of what the soldiers
went through in WWII, the sense of danger, fear, apprehension and disorientation
are captured in the day missions and even more magnified in the night.
But the glorious eye candy does have its faults. Things such as seeing
one of your soldiers stuck halfway in the ground and not able to move;
the broken fog that keeps enemies hidden at times yet allows them to see
you. Not to mention the absolute crawl your machine can come to when
in busy outdoor environments. With a PII 550, 256 Megs of RAM and TNT2 this
should absolutely not happen. Ignoring these plagues to the stunning visuals
I moved on to test the gameplay.
Mission Structure
The missions are some of the most well thought out, well designed and challenging
I have yet played in a shooter. Couple that with the excellent
strategic mode command interface and you have one solid foundation for
a great tactical shooter.
In Rainbow Six you planned your movements and
plotted team member waypoints prior to commencing the mission, in H&D
you have full tactical control throughout the entire mission. Between the
tactical and first person angles of the game, H&D is like having two
games in one, similar to Rainbow Six but more dynamic since the planning happens
during gameplay not before.
During gameplay, orders are issued through the strategic mode. Entering
into the strategic mode is as simple as hitting the space bar. From there
you will be brought to an overhead map that cleverly resembles a ‘sand
table’ which units use for pre-battle walkthroughs and tactical classes.
It’s a nice little atmospheric touch and the functionality of the map is
very strong, complete with numerous commands that can be issued to each
soldier individually. You can have each soldier doing something different
in support of one another and the AI soldiers carry out the orders fairly
well. You will see the R6 syndrome of AI soldiers getting caught on environmental
objects at times. When this occurs you’ll have to take control and manually
move them out of trouble. Pathfinding is still an issue with H&D.
Every Rose Has Its Thorn.. Or Two
Unfortunately the stuck on walls syndrome is not the only trouble the AI
has in store for you. The AI really could do with some more work, as it
is just not all that intelligent at times.
This is painfully obvious when
after you have given a ‘hold fire’ command one of your artificially challenged
AI soldiers start leaning on the trigger, wasting ammo and the element
of surprise. The AI really needs to be tweaked; hopefully future patches
will address this issue. Another problem is when one of your
men tries to fire through one of his team mates or even worse, you!
Not only is the friendly
AI lacking but the enemy AI as well. Sometimes you’ll see flashes of brilliant
AI coding as enemy soldiers try to run you down after you’ve opened fire
on them. Other times you’ll be beside yourself in disbelief as the AI just
walks on by one of their own downed comrades without even the slightest
bit of notice. You also have to deal with the built in AI cheat that allows
them excellent shooting skills.
Man and Mouse
Although the above points
are admitted downsides, they do not necessarily kill the gameplay for
me. But there are some bugs that have caused me to turn this game off
in utter frustration and disgust. One sticking point for me has
been
the mouse control, or I should say a seeming lack thereof.
I’ve tried adjusting
the mouse movement to no avail. Even with the patch the mouse movement is still not fixed. This is akin to having sluggish response from your joystick in a flight sim; it's unacceptable and should never have been released this way. At times I feel like I'm moving through molasses due to the slow and bulky response of the mouse.
This forces you to save often and then attempt to bring each soldier along
to your location. If they die then you must go back out to the main
menu and reload the game you just saved. (Note to developer: an in game
quick load feature would be very helpful here) Not only may one of your soldiers
may die this way, sometimes they all will!
Drawing a Bead on the Bugs
This is an inexcusable bug that
should never have made it through QC. There is nothing more frustrating than clearing
the area of enemy and then calling your team across only to see them all
drop like flies on their way over. All your effort is wasted unless you saved
often.
Below I’ve included an image from one of the early missions that I had
to re-load and replay a couple of times in order to make it to the end. In
this mission I had already killed the entire enemy force, found out the
POW’s had been moved and was on my way to blow the tanks. The soldier in
the picture is obviously stuck in the grating on the stairs and was unable
to get out on his own or under my own control.
The soldier whose perspective
this is taken from is also stuck in the grating; these were both AI controlled
soldiers. I went to blow the tanks thinking “once I finish the objectives
the mission will end and I can move on.” Au contraire!
Lo and behold I could NOT finish the mission because not all of my men
were back. Frustrated once again by this game I went back through the
annoying process of reloading my saved game and it happened again! I finally
was able to finish the game by leaving the AI controlled soldiers behind,
killing off the remaining enemy on my own. It’s one thing to have to replay
a mission because YOU blew it, but when it’s due to bugs the game quickly loses its attraction.
The Flip Side
On the positive side, the sniper rifle is extremely useful and well done.
You’ll be able to reach out and touch someone and see it up close and personal,
pretty nice. Weapons fire is modeled pretty well too as not every round
follows the first fired, just like in real life. Be careful out there because
weapons fire is deadly and there are no magic health packs to save your
skin!
Coulda' Been A Contender
I’ve really been disappointed with the out of the box product. The bugs
in Hidden and Dangerous have kept me from enjoying what appears to be
an excellent game buried underneath. Unfortunately, to get to the
underlying fun you must contend
with some truly annoying bugs.
If you’re long on patience and don’t mind
reloading a game several times in a session due to bugs alone (not counting
the reloads from getting yourself killed), you might want to check this
game out. Otherwise, I’d recommend waiting until there is a more comprehensive
patch released. The current US patch doesn't do it.
Final Debriefing
While the premise is great, the graphics are stunning and the action is
high tension, the game in its current form leaves a lot to be desired.
The game killing bugs are sniping for you, and they are deadly accurate.
While I had hoped
that H&D would have given us another ‘Game of the Year’, my
hopes have been dashed numerous times in the utter frustration of
playing this game. The only award this game wins is the ‘Test Your
Patience’ award and it wins it hands down. Let’s hope a series of
comprehensive
patches can salvage Hidden and Dangerous before the CD becomes another
candidate for target practice on the shooting range.
